I am enjoying the warm ups more and more, it is like all eating dinner together - creates a good feel and gets us on the same track for the day. The last day of rehearsals before we head off to The Minack. We had a run through of the whole show - tighter than the last run, still a few music cues to sort out (all 100 of them). Wiggy is still making in the room, though her sewing machine became a source of amusement at one point, as an essential piece of stitching threw me off my lines. She called me precious - she's right! Can't say how great she has been - pictured here making our Anubis head for The Soothsayer and Alexas to wear at one point. Other props added to the production today - watermelons and a scythe. The programmes arrived today, delivered by Carl at Oxted Printers - done a good job too. Then Jean turned up to make final measurements for last minute costume adjustments (she has handmade them all) and Penny packed away the props with the company, ready for transferring to the van tomorrow. Over to Graham Mountain, technical manager to get it all safely down to Porthcurno. Cornwall - here we come!

Getting down to the nitty gritty now - we started with a very good warm up, led by Ellie and Jessie - then to a run through of entrances and exits and links between scenes, shaving off unnecessary gaps etc. Half an hour spent outside in the car park waving swallows around, that proved quite good for publicity - as people stopped to see what on earth was going on! They are going to look great at Minack and Caterham outdoors.We looked at Pompey's galley scene again - and also honed the pre-show which has been a little neglected - not any more. All the pieces are nearly in place now - for our final days rehearsal tomorrow before heading down to Cornwall. Book early!

Where to start! So much preparation for our opening night at The Minack Theatre next week. We have been bringing all elements of production together in a tech/dress. Music has been completed and is being worked into the production. Actors finally starting to come off book - Wiggy and Ray have been making countless props - day by day new things arrive - yesterday an Egyptian harp - today the Roman Standards and the swallows and flags. Graham has ordered his 6 metre high flag poles and Jean is heading off to a leatherer to get Antony's armour fixed. We continue to work on text and Beth Wood from The Arc joined us today for a stagger through of the show, offering some very helpful notes. The three fights have been choreographed but need to be run daily for precision. Elliot has been practising his fire eating and half of the production team lost focus when the belly dancer appeared on Pompey's boat. Antony & Cleopatra is an epic piece, so rarely done, it really is a privilege to have the opportunity to work on it. The next step is to hone all the elements into an event - we don't get previews - we have to just get it right. The Minack performances are days away and we are hoping to take something special down to Cornwall. The cast and crew have really come together - now let's hope for good weather too - else the job gets even tougher!

Production meeting last night, which led to final decisions being made on exactly how many swords and helmets, swallows, gold masks, flag-poles?, things left to construct, things we now don't need to worry about etc. And then of course more ideas arise -things alter - we adapt. And today we battled on literally through Act 4 and 5, having been through 1,2 and 3 yesterday. It is only when you start running that you can shape the play and see the whole as something in itself - the play has a style and a life of its own - suddenly the symbolism of the swallows was being felt - moments seemed to echo one another, leading to braver decisions and more clear character choices. A week until we pack up and head down to The Minack. Lots to do!

Wiggy turned up just at the right moment today with 8 poles, which will be magically transformed into swallows for our production. It took a while to get it right but Luke Walsh and the rest of the cast stepped forward to choreograph the moment in hand. We also finally got to run through the final scene of Act 4 where Antony dies. We welcomed Jessie O'Toole as DSM to the company today.

Quite a lot of excitement today as Wiggy and Ray dropped off the scallop shaped bed which they have been building for the show. Jean turned up with a few more costumes, whilst Ellie filmed a rehearsal trailer and somewhere in between all this we managed to rehearse Antony's bodged death scene. We have pretty much blocked the shape of the play and the afternoon finished with a re-look at the pre-show in costume. Ellie and Luke continued to work on text, using the Folio version to highlight capitals etc - often the First Folio of Shakespeare's works offers insights into how the lines were intended to be delivered. It is amazing how punctuation added by editors at a later date can actually confuse the meaning rather than help it.

We had a shorter day of rehearsals today, but got a lot done. Have also been working on the music for the play. The production will feature the work of international musician Hussein Zahawy as the soundtrack of the piece, famous for his AMAZING playing of the daf. His album ONE WORD is a collaboration with other Middle Eastern musicians and is evocative of the mood we are trying to create with Antony & Cleo. We worked more on Act 5, 2 and on what we are calling The Last Supper scene. Ellie and I revised the pre-show too. Things are coming together!